Modernism Gallery : Mark Stock - Reverie; West Coast Abstraction, Selected Works form 1975-2007, Part I.

Abstraction show artists: Charles Arnoldi, Edith Baumann, James Hayward, Peter Lodato, Daniel Mendel-Black, John M. Miller, Erik Saxon, David Simpson.

Comment by AB: You can always count on Mark Stock to ingeniously theme up and present a show in such a way that the paintings, in addition to being stand-alone works of art, together weave a tale, like chapters of a book. But there's no clear beginning, middle, or end; in fact, you get to be the author and personally arrange your own take on Stock's tale, painting by painting. In the rear gallery, complementing Stock's Reverie, is a commendable cull of crackerjack abstractions.

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Meridian Gallery : Franck Andr? Jamme - New Exercises; Dhyana - Contemporary anonymous Tantric drawings from Rajasthan; Form +.?

Artists from Form +: Todd Bura, L?onie Guyer, Prajakti Jayavant, Phil McGaughy, Evelyn Reyes, Dean Smith.

Comment by AB: A three-fer exhibition curated by CCA Dean of Graduate Studies, Lawrence Rinder. Now there's all kinds of inside-the-beltway artsters scurrying about which clues you into the fact that, relatively speaking, we've got ourselves a notable moment here. Anyway, according to the official arm of the operation, here's the dice roll-- "These three related exhibitions explore form as vehicle for imaginative experience. The artists here use form as a provocation to attention and as an armature for understanding. Abstract as they are, these works are not simply self-referential but rather allude to conditions and capacities of the mind."

I'm not exactly sure if that means what I think it means (or if I even get it), but to me, the concept seems to be about stripping away basically everything except shape, so when you look the art, about your only option is ruminate on the fundamental underpinnings of it all. Or maybe not. Whatever it is, the overall exercise decisively favors theory over practicality, or as we say in the real world, paying the rent. Nevertheless, each of its three facets offers up a distinct inkling into that ever-evolving bouillabaisse we call art.

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Good Vibrations Polk Street Gallery: Monica Lundy - Paintings.

Comment by AB: Thoughtful palette knife figure paintings by Monica Lundy explore feelings as well as form.

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Rare Device : Evan B. Harris - Garden at Eichstatt.

Comment by AB: The "Garden at Eichstatt" originated with Johann Konrad von Gemmingen (c. 1561-1612), who had a fantastic variety of vegitation planted around the episcopal residence of Eichst?tt, Germany where he served as Prince-Bishop from 1595 to 1612. Basilius Besler (1561-1629), pharmacist and artist, was retained by von Gemmingen to document the many species of plants in a series of botanical drawings. Evan Harris tells me he incorporates images from Besler's drawings into this series of entirely competent works on paper, building them out with imaginative poetic imagery, the upshot imparting somewhat of a traditional European folk art feel.

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